Basic Convergence Theory for the Network Element Method

A recent paper introduced the network element method (NEM) where the usual mesh was replaced by a discretization network. Using the associated network geometric coefficients and following the virtual element framework, a consistent and stable numerical scheme was proposed. The aim of the present paper is to derive a convergence theory for the NEM under mild assumptions on the exact problem. We also derive basic error estimates, which are sub-optimal in the sense that we have to assume more regularity than usual.